Monday, February 17, 2014

When the news first broke about the NSA spying scandal, I was, like many, very upset by the violation of our Constitutional rights and privacy. There were, of course, a few out there who don't seem to mind unchecked power. I guess they would have make good NAZIs or Communists.

Now that the dust has settled...or the curtain has been pulled back, I feel compelled to comment on some of the subsequent releases of NSA documents.

Even with the first release, the part of me that would never violate an oath of secrecy, struggled with the release of classified documents. Talk about mixed emotions. Frankly, I'm not sure what he could have done. If he raised flags internally, he would have either disappeared or been prosecuted and made to rot in jail and disappeared that way. He probably could have gone outside of the NSA, to Congress, but look at how many still support the NSA's efforts to "protect us from terrorism"! That, despite the fact that the NSA admits that no attacks were stopped.

So, he ended up going to a foreign press. I probably wouldn't have as much of a problem with that if he had not included documents on what the NSA does outside of the USA. Spying on foreign governments IS their job, and I have no problem with that. So, this is where my "support" for Snowden ends. I have no issues with calling out power-hungry fools and secret and un-American courts that violate our rights. I do have a problem with giving the world our blueprints for spying.

Snowden has given up everything, right or wrong. I feel sorry for him, and grateful for what he has done too. As much as I sit here on my bully pulpit, I could not have violated my oath. I take it too seriously. Does that make me a coward or a patriot? I don't know. I do know that all it take for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.